Generally, a weather radar is mounted in the nose of an airplane located in front of the cockpit of the airplane and supplies essential weather information to a pilot for safe aviation of the airplane. The weather radar is enclosed by a complex structure called a radome (a radar dome), thereby being safely prevented from hindrances such as heat, humidity, and foreign objects.
A radome is required to be configured in such a manner that the radome protects a weather radar from the outside, and permits the penetration of all electromagnetic waves transmitted over a broad frequency bandwidth so that the weather radar can easily identify signals transmitted from the outside. Furthermore, considering the high-speed flight of an airplane, the radome is required to be prevented from being easily abraded by hail, sand, etc. To achieve an above-mentioned object, a commercial airplane flying at a subsonic speed generally uses a radome constructed of synthetic resin materials.
The radome of synthetic resin materials has an advantage in that it is light and sturdy, and thus allows a weather radar to operate without being hindered. However, when flights are long, the radome of the airplane obtains many scratches on the surface thereof caused by foreign objects such as sand and hail. Scratches generally do not directly affect the operation of a weather radar, but if a foreign object such as excrement of a bird excessively accumulates on scratches, the foreign objects may cause the weather radar to malfunction. Accordingly, when an airplane has flown a predetermined number of hours, scrubbing, cleaning, or polishing is performed on the surface of the radome of the airplane.
Since a radome is configured in a hemispheric shape, it is difficult to perform surface treatment thereon by using a mechanical device. Accordingly, operations such as scrubbing, cleaning, or polishing the surface of the radome are being performed by a worker using a scrubbing tool shouldered by the worker. Accordingly, the result and efficiency of the operation cannot be maintained at predetermined level, and vary depending on proficiency of the worker. In this case, excessive scrubbing may be performed on a certain portion of a radome, so that the certain portion may form cracks. Accordingly, surface treatments performed manually may lead to an airplane accident.
If a radome is configured in a spherical shape, the issue of treating the surface of the radome described above is applied not only to a normal radar and a weather radar mounted on moving objects such as an airplane, but also to a weather radar fixed on the ground. Accordingly, a solution to address the issue is being extremely required.